Boy Meets Girl
by rebeccadarling
Summary: James Potter is the bane of Lily Evans’ existence and so when the opportunity arises her friends encourage her to seek revenge by dating James’ closest friend; Sirius Black. This follows the JP/LE romance from 6th year until they leave Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: A bad start

James stepped onto the train at platform 9 ¾ and waved goodbye to his dad.

"Bye Dad!" James grinned his infamous mischievous smile.

"Behave yourself!" His father replied "And don't forget to write at some point this term!" said Robert Potter futility, knowing full well that his trouble-maker of a son would be far too busy creating chaos to think of home. With another wave, James was gone, in search of his three best friends; Sirius, Remus and Peter. He hadn't been searching very long when he heard a very familiar voice, felt someone jump on his back and before he knew it, James was sprawled across the floor with his best buddy, Sirius, giving him an overtly affectionate hug.

"How are you, Prongsy? How were your holidays" Sirius asked.

"Well, Padfoot, I was doing fine until a complete lunatic came along and decided to assault me and cause me grievous bodily harm!" James said rubbing his toned arms, on which there were now red handprints, courtesy of Sirius. Several fifth year Ravenclaws walked past staring at the sight of the two best looking and most popular guys in the school rolling round on the floor in what looked to be an embrace. Sirius realised that he was still on top of James and stood up before turning and winking at one of the Ravenclaws, who promptly turned red and scurried off, followed by her friends.

"Anyway, you only left my house yesterday!" James continued their conversation. Sirius spent most of his time away from Hogwarts at the Potter household, and spoke very little about his own home life. "And where on Earth are the other two?" He finished shouting over the sound of the train whistle, signalling that their journey was about to begin. The two boys suddenly fell over as the train abruptly shuddered forwards, and once again found themselves in another, rather award position.

"You know, mate, you really are going to have to stop falling at my feet!" Sirius quipped, while James responded by hitting him in the arm. A small mock-fight ensued, in which Sirius resorted to tickling James.

"Sirius, get off me...that's not fair...stop feeling me up, man!" James said in between laughs. "It's a cheap shot, just because you're not ticklish!" The two boys stopped their antics, as someone walked towards them.

"Excuse me, can I please get by here?" a female voice asked. James didn't need to look up to recognise that voice. It was Lily Evans: the girl every guy wanted to date and every girl wanted to be. James quickly jumped to his feet and muttered an apology as he went bright red. Sirius stood up slowly, before bending over into a low bow.

"Of course, my lady! And may I ask, when are you going to put our darling James out of his misery and just agree to go out with him?" James turned bright red. "Or if James is not to your liking, my lady, may I say that I also find you highly attractive and I think that..."

"Save it, Black." Lily said with a grin, taking it all in good humour before walking past them. Her smile was nearly as famous as James'. When you take a photo of a group of girls, it is a well known fact that at least 60 of the girls will be pouting, 30 would be striking a pose that has been perfected, while 9 would refuse to smile at all. Not Lily, however, she belonged to that exclusive club of girls who, when faced with a camera, would smile the biggest and most genuine smile you could imagine. It was part of Lily, and was one of the reasons that she was so popular. That smile made her so approachable to the younger years, meant that none of the third and fourth years were too upset when she had to discipline them, and was why all the males in the senior years flocked around her as she just looked so fun to be around.

Lily was probably the female counterpart of James and Sirius. James was around six foot and very good looking (and rather aware of it!). He had hazel eyes and messy black hair which, despite his protests to the contrary, everyone thought that he did on purpose. He was in his sixth year at Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry, very popular, incredibly clever and seeker on the Quiddich team (rumoured to be made Capitan). The only reason that he would almost definitely not be made a prefect this year was because of a not-so-small love of practical jokes.

Sirius was roughly the same height as James and was equally good looking, but his eyes were silver, his hair blacker than James' and was neat no matter what he did. Sirius had an aura of charisma about him, helped by his slightly cocky attitude. All girls love a bad boy, and he knew it! The two boys dived into a spare compartment and made themselves comfortable.

"You have it bad for her, don't you?" Sirius said, as usual pointing out the obvious.

"And you don't?" was James clever comeback. "At least you have a chance with her. She won't even acknowledge me."

"Well, that's your own fault after last year." Sirius laughed. "To be honest, I'm not surprised."

"Hang on, I seem to remember that you played a part in that as well!"

Last year, James and Sirius had been arguing in the common room, late one Saturday evening after consuming a significant amount of Firewiskey, debating who was the most popular with the girls. The whole thing was getting slightly out of hand and the boys were hatching a plan to find out once and for all who was the greatest sex god of all time. It was Peter who suggested that the two boys ask out Lily, and the winner would be the one who could persuade her to go on a date. Unfortunately, just as James was announcing in rather loud tones that no girl would be able to resist the temptation of James Robert Potter, not even Lily Evans, the girl in question walked into the common room to ask them to be quiet. She overheard James' statement, and the normally level headed individual took on a whole new persona. Magic seemed to surround her angry aura as she strode over to the group of guys, wand in hand.

"How dare you, James Potter" she had hissed in a low voice her emerald green eyes, wide and glinting. And that was all she said, before sending so many curses and hexes at James that he was still sore a month later.

Lily was the first girl to have ever stood up to James Potter and resisted his charms, and James had developed new-found feelings of respect for her. He had tried to apologise, but she was having none of it, and he found himself to be head over heels for her. Unfortunately, after the incident with James, all the other males, not only in Gryffindor but the other three houses as well, also developed even more respect for the beautiful red-head, and she just found herself even more popular than before.

James was shaken from his thoughts as Remus and Peter barged in the train compartment.

"Wow, how do you get that?" James asked doing a double-take. He was referring to the shiny silver badge shining on Remus' robes. "I mean, what spell did you cast on Dumbledore, or is he just plain mad?" Remus shrugged it off modestly.

"I suppose he thought that by giving me power, I might be able to keep you lot in hand!"

"Us? Trouble?" Sirius said with mock astonishment.

"Never!" Peter joined in, and the two boys burst out laughing.

"While we're on the subject of trouble," Sirius said enigmatically, with the glint in his eye brighter than ever "There's the Halloween ball coming up soon, what are we planning? Because, you see, the thing is, I was thinking..."

"Really, don't strain yourself." Lily said walking into the carriage and interrupting his sentence. The four boys looked up at her and admired her beauty. She had long, wavy, dark red hair with a fringe that half hid her eyes, her pale complexion was scattered with cute freckles across her nose and the most amazing emerald green eyes anyone had seen. She was just under five foot four with a really slender build, but with curves in all the right places. There was no denying that she was truly beautiful.

"May I talk to you for moment please, Remus?" She asked in her most charming voice.

"Uh, yeah" Sirius replied.

"Sirius, she was talking to Moony." James told him.

"Sure, Mum." Sirius said in a daze eyes transfixed on the girl before him. Lily looked at him in a strange way and walked outside the carriage, Remus following.

The boys threw confused glances at each other, wondering what was going on.

It was well known that Lily liked Remus. How it was known was unknown but still known all the same. The idea of the two of them together was a very sensible one; they were quiet, level-headed, hard-working prefects and had been good friends since their first year. They were both attractive and well-liked individuals. Oh yes, it was a very rational idea and the two were both perfectly suited to one another. But who ever fell in love because it was a sensible idea, James thought. Love isn't rational. You can't explain it. It wasn't rational that he was head-over heels with Lily, the one girl who would never go out with him, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help the fact that he was so infatuated with her that he couldn't help thinking about her, dreaming about the first time they would kiss, the first time they would confess their love for each other, how he would walk her to class and send her flowers. James didn't know what he would do and how he would react if his friend started to date Lily.

Sirius and Peter stared at James who was absent-mindedly changing his hair colour from black to pink. They all knew James was besotted with Lily, in fact the whole school knew.

"Do you think…?" James started to say. Obviously he was regretting not becoming a prefect. There was a long silence in the compartment, only interrupted when Remus returned to his friends.

"Just dumb prefect stuff," Remus said without being prompted as he sat down, and James heaved a sigh of relief.

"Dude, if I had known that we would get to spend extra time with Evans, you would not believe how hard I would have worked!" Sirius joked.

"Um, Lily just sort of asked me to Hogsmeade with her," Remus admitted, carefully watching James' expression.

"WHAT!" Peter and Sirius exclaimed together.

"Well, Lily said "Remus, will you go to Hogsmeade next weekend with me?"" Remus tried to joke, but obviously it was lost on James' face.

"Good on you, Lupin." James said before storming out the carriage. The remaining boys were stunned. In their little group you were only called by your last name if the other person was extremely miffed with you.

Remus felt very guilty, and they three remaining boys sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments.

"What do you guys think I should do? Sirius you wouldn't turn Lily down if you got the chance would you? Petey you wouldn't either." Remus' pale grey eyes looked wider than ever. "I think she only asked me out anyway because we're both prefects."

Sirius glanced up at his friend, knowing full well that he wouldn't turn down Lily either. Peter looked between his two friends nervously.

"You're right, Moony, none of us would. But I just think that you need to explain it to James and give him time to sort it out in his head." Peter said reasonably.

Sirius said nothing, not wanting to defend James or offend Remus, so he just nodded along with Peter. Remus stood up and gracefully left the room in search of his friend.

* * *

Lily was patrolling the corridors, taking her prefect duties very serious, yelling at the younger years to stop running in the corridors, breaking up fights (both physical and magical) between the Gryffindors and Slytherins and stopping various couples from performing some quite unsuitable public displays of affections. Lily had just been calming some homesick first years down, when she left the cabin and walked right into a distressed looking James Potter. As much as Lily disliked the boy, her innate caring nature compelled her to enquire as to what was the matter.

"Are you alright, Potter." The sound of her voice seemed to bring him out of his daze and back to reality with a thud.

"Fine. I'm having a billboard time, thanks to you Evans." His voice was laced with sarcasm. Lily was rather taken aback at his attitude, and felt her anger bubbling through her.

"There's no need to be that rude to me, I was only trying to be polite. But, then, I suppose that you with your big head and arrogant attitude wouldn't understand basic manners and common courtesies." She snapped, turning and heading down the corridor. However, before she could flounce off, she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Potter let me go" she fought before turning round and looking into his eyes.

"Sorry" he muttered, his intense gaze making her feel uncomfortable. "I hope that you're very happy with Lupin." He said in a tone which disagreed completely with the statement he was making. He then walked off, leaving a confused Lily to go and find her friends. She didn't have to look for long as she simply walked in the direction from where most of the noise was coming and sure enough that was the compartment containing her friends. Walking through the door, she was greeted by shrieks from her two best friends and could barely breathe from the bone-crushing hugs she was receiving.

"Opal get off me you loser" she exclaimed affectionately, to her friend. Opal Derwent was very tall and thin with big pale blue eyes, white-blonde hair which today was styled in two plaits fastened with navy blue ribbon. Opal was from a well-to-do pure-blooded family and an only child, but you would never have guessed this as she was a fairly shy individual, only really opening up around her two best friends.

"What about me?" Rachel Darling demanded, her arms open waiting for a hug. Rachel was nearly the complete opposite of Opal, and outsiders often thought it strange that the two were in the same group of friends. Rachel had long dark brown hair, huge puppy dog eyes, a Mediterranean complexion as a result of her mother being half Italian and was about five foot six with an athletic build. She was a highly attractive girl, but with a slight rocker edge to her appearance, probably because of the black eyeliner she wore to define her already huge eyes. Rachel was a half-blooded witch and was the youngest of four siblings, with her sister Rebecca in the year above and then had three brothers, two of whom were aurors and one who worked in Magical Law Enforcement. With such high achieving brothers and a sister who Head Girl, there was always pressure on her to live up to her parents expectations, which Rachel didn't feel able to do, and her way of dealing with this was to rebel completely. She took very little interest in her academic studies instead focusing her energies on Quiddich and rebelling. Lily was certain that is Rachel spent half as much on school work, as she did flying round on her broomstick then she would have absolutely no problem in matching the intellect levels as her sister. However, she also knew that Rachel did not have enough confidence to compete with Rebecca and that Rachel's over-confident exterior was often just a show; it was the person Rachel wanted to be, rather than the one she was. Still, it was up to her to make her own way in life, and doubtless Rachel would find herself sooner or later.

"Of course, Rachel Darling" Lily responded with a hug, slightly teasing her friend about her surname. "How was your summer then?" She asked her friends, grabbing a chocolate frog and settling down on a seat.

"Not bad, spent most of it playing Quiddich" Rachel responded before Opal "Then Mum and Dad were going crazy over the fact that Rebecca is head girl, Rebecca was gloating for most of the summer. Though she did take me down to Cornwall with her and her boyfriend for a week, which was sweet. If not sickening. He's a muggle and she hasn't told him she is a witch yet, so we'll see how that turns out... Other than that, didn't do much else."

"What about you Opal?" Lily asked.

"Dad was working in France all summer, so I got to go over there with him for a couple of weeks. Other than that I just visited relatives and family friends. Saw quite a bit of Potter and Black..." her soft, well-spoken voice trailed off. Her and Potter's mothers were good friends from school and so as a result their children had always spent a lot of time together, and wherever Potter went, Black was sure to follow. "What about you, Lils?"

"Worked most of it," she admitted. As she wasn't from such a privileged background as her friends, her parents had instilled a hard work ethic into her, and she had been made to get a holiday job as soon as she turned 16, and spent her day's waitressing in a café. "Got repeatedly chatted up by dirty old men and had drinks spilt over me by clumsy small children. Made a fair bit though."

"And I see you've been made a prefect." Rachel said accusingly, displaying her mistrust for any form of authority.

"Yes, but think of how much more we can get away with now!" Opal said "Now that Lily is trusted". Lily pretended to be shocked.

"So you're just using me for my power, is that it?" she mock sobbed.

"Yep!" Rachel confirmed. "Have you seen the Marauders this year?"

"Not yet," Opal conversed "Why?"

"They get better looking each year!"

"I had the misfortune to bump into that Potter earlier; he's upset that I've asked Remus to Hogsmeade with me." Her friends glanced at each other, and then at Lily.

"Gossip!" Rachel's eyes lit up "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"You and Remus?" Opal asked.

"Yes, why not?" Lily said defiantly. "He's a perfectly decent bloke, unlike some boys around here."

"No reason, I mean Remus is a lovely guy I just never thought you liked him like that."

"Lily," the outspoken Rachel began.

"Rachel" Lily responded.

"You and Remus would make a boringly, nice couple. You're right that Remus is a pleasant chap, but no-body falls in love with nice. Lily, my flower, you need a bad boy to bring some excitement into your life. You would get bored with someone the same as you, you need someone to argue with, someone whose reckless attitude will balance out your own calm personality." Rachel was getting more and more animated as she spoke.

"You quite finished?" Lily asked. Rachel nodded. "Well, now that you've finished analysing me, it's just a trip to the local town, not a wedding proposal."

"Rachel's perfectly right though, Lils" Opal interjected. For some reason this riled Lily.

"Fine, well you two fix me up with my perfect date and we'll see whose right then." she said irritably. She hated being corrected by anyone. "I'm going to patrol the corridors, we're nearly there anyway, and you need to put your robes on." And with that she swept out of the room to go yell at the excitable first years, leaving her two friends with mischievous smiles on their faces as they started to plot.

* * *

Remus found James sat staring out the window of a cabin that was otherwise occupied by two nervous looking second year boys from Hufflepuff.

"I'll give you each a chocolate frog if you clear off" he said to the boys, who nodded in agreement. Remus handed over the sweets and they scurried off.

"James," he said tentatively "I'm sorry. I'm just going with Lily as a friend, I know how you feel about her." He was about to continue, when James stopped his friend.

"No, you don't need to be sorry. I'm an idiot."

"As always!" Remus teased.

"I need to get over her, Moony." James wailed at his friend. "But no matter how many other girls I go out with, I can't stop myself thinking about her. And no matter how many times I ask, she's never going to go out with me."

"Maybe you need to rethink your strategies." Remus said wearily, after all, they had all heard this speech from James at least a thousand and one times. This time, however, a light was suddenly switched on inside James' head.

"You're right!" He said, jumping up and banging his head on the overhead baggage compartment. "Ouch! I think I'm concussed" He rubbed his head.

"Are you going to elaborate on whatever it is you have just thought of or are you going to leave me in suspense?" Remus questioned. James was suddenly back to himself.

"You'll find out soon enough." James promised. "Anyway, let's get back to the others; we need to figure out what we are going to do to the Slytherins. Only two years left to cause mayhem!"

He left the room in a whirlwind, dragging his friend with him.

* * *

The students soon found themselves sat in the dining hall watching this year's batch of students being sorted. Lily always found it endearing the way that the muggleborns were so astonished by the sight of the ceiling, and laughed when one small girl asked "Where has the ceiling gone?" She herself had been exactly the same when she first came and so felt a motherly need to help anyone that looked overtly frightened. She loved the sorting process, and she and her friends sat and guessed which house each of the students would be sorted into.

"Bertie Caraway" Professor McGonagall called, as a short, slightly chubby, but very arrogant looking boy went and plonked himself down on the chair before pulling the hat on his head.

"Slytherin, definitely." Opal decided.

"No, he doesn't look as though he has two brain cells to rub together. Hufflepuff." Rachel opposed.

"Slytherin!" The hat shouted.

"Stella Carson" McGonagall announced, and a tiny shaking girl nervously made her way to the front of the hall.

"Hufflepuff." Rachel and Opal said in unison.

Lily's attention, however, had been distracted at the sight of the Marauders looking suspiciously guilty. What were they up to? Lily hated the idea that Potter and Black would terrorise the new students on their first night back, but they were definitely up to something. Potter had that smirk on his face, Black that glint in his eye, Pettigrew looked gleeful while Lupin looked very amused at something. Lily nudged Rachel catching Opal's attention and nodded towards the boys. Her friends read the boys faces immediately and understood Lily's concern; no one came out well from a Marauder's prank. Lily herself, even though admired by all the Marauders, had found herself a victim of their mindless (though considering the amount of time they put into planning them they weren't so mindless), childish practical jokes.

There was the time that they had charmed grass on the floor of the dining room and the let a herd of angry, magical goats in there. Anyone who has ever been head-butted by an ordinary goat would feel empathy for the students who had to eat in that room, surrounded by the irritable, hungry goats for a week until all the elusive goats could be humanely caught. There is nothing like loosing your Monday morning fry-up to an irate mountain goat to set you up in a positive mood for the day. Once the Marauders, in winter, had moved all the dining room furniture outside and set it up on the Quiddich pitch having cast spells on it to make it unmovable. That had lasted two days before the freezing snow convinced the boys to move everything back indoors. There was the knickers raid from the girls dormitories with bunting made from said underwear and hung outside to decorate the stands for a Quiddich match.

As well as large-scale pranks such as that, they also used medium scale jokes like when they blocked all the portrait holes for all the houses and the students were subsequently unable to attend morning lessons. And then there were the small-scale, petty, irritating jokes that were received on a day to day basis. Fake quills that would pretend not to write and then sudden shoot ink into the face of the writer. Ink pots containing cockroaches. Books that screamed a deafening noise when opened and then flew and hit you on the head. They even resorted to muggle tricks such as buckets of frogs balanced on top of doors and no-one was safe. However, the ingenious part of all their endeavours was that they were rarely caught for the prank they were pulling. They always got punished one way or another for other minor offences (the day after the goat incident, Sirius found himself in a month long detention for looking at McGonagall in a funny way, Potter for breathing too loudly during a flying lesson, Pettigrew for turning up to class too early and Lupin because he looked a bit shifty in the dining room) but they were never actually officially proved to be the culprits. So, understandably, Lily was panicked.

However, Lily also knew that it was near impossible to stop a Marauder joke but that wouldn't stop her trying.

"How can we stop them?" she hissed at her friends.

"Stop the Marauders from performing a practical joke? That's like trying to stop a flock of giant thestrals midair with just a butterfly net!" Exclaimed Rachel.

"Helpful" Lily muttered.

Unfortunately, James noticed the girls staring at them anxiously.

"Padfoot, I think they've twigged"

"Silence them then!"

"From all the way over here? That I can't do, there are too many people in the way."

"Well get closer to them then. They can't ruin it for us. How will the new first years know to stay out of our way if we do not assert our position as Chief Pranksters on their first day at Hogwarts?" Sirius demanded.

"Fine, I'll have to go over to them in a minute."

"Kiss one of them!" Opal suggested.

"One of them? You have got to be kidding me. I don't know where they've been, they've kissed countless other girls and, to be frank, their hygiene levels are suspect." was Lily's response. "Make Rachel!"

"Only if you do."

"This is ridiculous. Can we not think of a better way to distract them?" Lily pleaded.

"Kiss Snape!" Opal exclaimed.

"Oh that's right, you're coming out with some Einstein-worthy ideas today." Rachel snapped, terrified that her meal would soon turn into a plate of flobber-worms or something. Rachel hated flobber-worms.

"No seriously, Lils. That would really distract them."

"What if I kiss Severus and then they pull the prank anyway?" Lily wined desperately.

"Then we are thoroughly screwed. So which is it Potter or Snape?"

"Fine, it will have to be..." Lily started. But unfortunately the girls had been procrastinating for so long that the guys had decided that the best thing would be to perform the prank right away, before they could be stopped. All the doors swung shut and locked with a resounding thud, before all the candles went out and the room was in pitch black. There was mass hysteria among the younger students who were already very frightened, before a loud booming voice echoed around the room.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first Marauder performance of the year. We give you an act to end all acts, please turn your attention to...The Slytherins!"

There was a moment's silence, where the four boys could be heard to be arguing over the correct spell to bring the lights back on and to open the doors, before everything returned to normal, only...

"Look at the Slytherins!" a third year Hufflepuff shouted and the whole school erupted into laughter. There stood the Slytherins in fluffy, pink, rabbit outfits, with ears and bunny-tails. Peter pulled out a camera and took a photo, infuriating the Slytherins further, who then tried to hop out of the hall. Professor Slughorn looked very upset at the thought of his Slytherins no longer being frightening and stood up arguing with the headmaster, who just sat there with a twinkle in his eye. Lily, however, did not see the funny side, and marched straight over to the offending group.

"Potter, you arrogant berk!" she said forcefully. "There were brand new students in that house, and the other houses that you have now terrified. On their first day. Can you not remember how it feels to be new and frightened anyway, without adding this stress onto them?"

"Evans, my love, it's just a joke. Don't worry your pretty little head about it." James replied. Wrong answer.

"A joke." Lily repeated. "A joke? How dare you, you insufferable git. No wonder house relations are so bad when from their first ever day you and your little posse are instilling hatred and prejudices into the minds of impressionable eleven year olds. You are just so irresponsible, I..." Lily was lost for words. James opened his mouth to talk, but Lily interrupted him. "Never mind, Potter, I can't bear to be around you." James tried to speak again, but Lily quickly drew out her wand and pointed it at his face. James gulped remembering the last time Lily Evans had drawn her wand on him. "Silencio!" she said aggressively and James relaxed. That could be easily removed. However, Lily had not finished. "Permentus". James panicked. That meant that Lily was the only one who could remove that spell from him. He tried gesturing at the re-headed prefect, but she turned and calmly strode from the Great Hall.

"Mr Potter, I do hope that you can explain yourself." Minerva McGonagall's stern voice loomed over him. James tried to speak, but when he realised there was no chance of him being able to reclaim the use of his vocal chords, he started to mime what Lily had done to him. McGonagall looked on in astonishment.

"Mr Potter this is not a game of charades. Go and see the headmaster at once. Fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's detention. Now leave my sight." She ordered. James left the dining room feeling as though somehow Lily had got the better of him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Lily calm down! As far as pranks go, that was fairly tame." Opal tried to soothe her seething friend. "Nobody was physically hurt, and the psychological damage caused to the new students shouldn't affect the rest of their lives too much!" she tried to joke, but it was lost on Lily who really was in a temper.

"That arrogant jerk!" Lily cursed. As a result of the Marauders' antics she had spent the whole evening assuring the first years that nothing like that would happen again. Lily hoped that she sounded more confident than she was about that promise.

"It wasn't just Potter, Lily. The others were involved too. Remus included." Opal reminded her friend.

"Yes. I hate them all." She muttered.

"Well, perhaps we need to get our revenge!" Rachel decided. This appealed to Lily and she stopped pacing her dorm to give her friend her full attention. The Marauders and Potter in particular had caused so much aggravation throughout Lily's time a Hogwarts that the idea of getting their own back was very tempting. Encouraged Rachel continued.

"What would wind Potter up more than anything?" Rachel asked, though the girls knew it was a rhetorical question.

"Brushing his hair?" Opal joked.

"Having to use manners?" Lily joined in.

"Not being able to talk!" Opal referred to Lily's earlier spell, bringing a satisfied smirk to her friends face.

"Tell him that the female population has taken a year long vow of chastity?"

"Tell him that the female population of Hogwarts are now same sex orientated. Wait, no, he'd probably like that."

"No, no, no! Lily!" Rachel declared.

"What?" she responded.

"No, you! Potter is so infatuated with you Lils, I think that the one thing that would wind him up the most is if you dated his best friend."

"Sirius? You have to be kidding!"

"No, I'm quite Sirius!" Rachel joked, while the other girls groaned. It wasn't exactly the most original joke. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Not happening." She told her friend.

"Listen to me, Lils. Think about it. Sirius is James' best friend and they both fancy you. You saw how Potter reacted when you asked Remus to Hogsmeade with you, imagine the falling out they would have if you went out with Sirius. That argument could last months." Lily could start to see her friends reasoning, and so Rachel continued "You could be the saviour of the students, Lily, protector of the pupils, defender of Hogwarts and all you have to do is date a guy for a couple of weeks!" Rachel ended triumphantly. There was a moment's silence in which all three girls pondered the idea.

"Isn't it highly immoral?" Opal asked carefully, not wishing to offend Rachel's idea.

"Well, yes, but they aren't exactly models of virtue, particularly Potter. And Sirius is really hot! So, Lily what do you think?"

Lily thought for a moment, her logical and emotional sides arguing. Nothing good could come from doing this for revenge she rationalised, but unfortunately the red-headed temper was a much stronger force.

"Yes, I'm in!"

The girls looked gleeful.

* * *

Lily's spell casting was so advanced that not even Dumbledore had been able to figure out how to lift the enchantment and suggested that James went and made peace with Lily in hope that she would remove it. Feeling that Lily and McGonagall between them had suitably chastised the boy, he gave James a light telling off, feeling that Lily would have further punishments in store for him. Plus, the boy couldn't even talk to defend himself, and obviously couldn't cast any spells for a while. James returned to the common room feeling very subdued; only realising when he reached the portrait that he had one big problem. He couldn't say the password. Sighing silently he tried to mouth the password to the Fat Lady.

"What are you trying to say, boy?" she enquired.

"Flying Snorak" James mouthed urgently.

"What? I can't hear you sweetheart."

James mouthed the words again.

"I can't let you in without hearing you say those words." She reminded James.

What did a Snorak look like? James contemplated trying to act out the password, until he decided that the best idea would be to simply bang on the portrait until someone let him in.

"Ouch, dear!" the Fat Lady exclaimed in some pain "You're giving me a headache worse than a hangover on the first of January after partying with trolls the night before." Fortunately for her someone heard the banging and opened the door from the inside. It suddenly swung open with some force, sending James flying. He heard someone tutting above him, and looked up to see Lily standing there with her arms folded.

"You're lucky I'm up, Potter. I had just finished doing my prefect rounds. Do you realise that it is nearly midnight? Why are you wondering the castle at this time of night anyway? 10 points from Gryffindor." She smirked as he tried to argue, but couldn't. "What's the matter, Potter?" she teased. "Speechless?"

Lily turned to go back inside the Gryffindor common room, and James followed. Lily was about to walk up to the girls dormitories when James tapped her on the shoulder and gestured for her to remove the spell.

"I suppose I ought to." She admitted reluctantly, stepping forward leaning towards him. James suddenly realised how close she was. "But next time, I won't be so lenient." He could feel her breath on his ear. Lily was aware of how uncomfortable she was making him feel as she uttered the words to reverse the spell with a short flick of her wand.

"Thank you, Lily. I'm sorry." James stuttered out, blushing. Lily turned and went up the stairs, James watching her every move. After she was out of sight, he turned and made his way to his room. After tripping over Sirius' boom which had been left strewn across the door entrance, he fell into Peter's bed, waking his friend abruptly. Peter yelped like a little girl waking the other two, and Sirius shot out of his bed to see what the commotion was all about. Finding James sprawled across their other room-mate in such a compromising position, made him snigger, and James quickly leapt up.

"Didn't know you swung that way, Prongs." He teased as James carefully manoeuvred his was across all the combined mess of four adolescent teenage boys towards his four poster bed. "And why wasn't I your first choice, anyway? I thought I was your best mate. I mean I'm so much goddamn hotter than Petey! No offence Pete, but have you seen my backside?" He added as an afterthought.

"None taken and no I haven't examined it." Peter said yawning at his friend's lack of modesty. "I don't want that kind of attention from him, to be honest."

"Shut up you two." Remus yelled from under his duvet, before pushing it back so he could speak to James. "How did it go? Can you talk yet?"

"Yes, I can speak just fine, Evans took the spell off and Dumbledore was pretty lenient actually. Just repeated all that rubbish about how disappointed he was with me as usual."

"He doesn't mean that though, Prongs. Everyone knows that without us, Hogwarts would be a frighteningly dull place. Filtch would roam freely and maybe even..." Sirius paused for effect "smile! Now that would terrify the first years."

"How was Evans with you?" Remus asked sensitively.

"Well she took the spell off him, so obviously she's fine and the whole thing will blow over by tomorrow." Sirius responded for his friend.

"I'm tired" James responded. The boys climbed back into their beds.

"Oh, James?" Peter called.

"Yes, Wormtail?"

"If you do feel any more urges of a homosexual nature during the night, can you please enquire as to the other party's sexual preference first, or at the very least wake them up."

This caused Sirius to get a fit of the giggles, only stopped by Remus throwing a Herbology textbook at his head.

"Ow!" Sirius exclaimed theatrically.

"Might have knocked some sense into you" said Remus, placing his head under the pillows to block out anymore noise coming from his friends.

The room was silent and James stripped down to his boxers and pulled on a t-shirt, shivering as his skin was briefly exposed to the cold, Scottish air, before climbing into bed. He had some very...interesting dreams that night, all of which revolved around a certain red-head.

* * *

The next morning, Lily woke at her usual time of six-thirty and went for a shower and performed her morning ablutions. As was her dorms normal routine, she woke the two other girls in her room up before showering and would then walk back in the room half an hour later to find them curled up in the exact same positions as before. It was then typical for Lily to take their duvets from them, causing Opal to fall out of bed and the more stubborn Rachel to start cursing her dear friend, Lily.

"Get lost, Lily." She grumbled. Rachel was definitely not a morning person.

"Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty." Lily said.

"Who's Sleeping Beauty?" Opal yawned. "Can I have her job?"

"Come on you two, we need to hatch our plan." Lily hurried her friends. This woke Rachel up properly, and her scowl was replaced by a mischievous grin.

"Okay, give me fifteen minutes and we'll go down to the Great Hall." She scampered off in the direction of the bathroom.

"Hang on," Opal warned, knowing that Rachel's fifteen minutes would actually equate into three-quarters of an hour "You are not using up all the hot water before me."

"I would never!" Rachel indigently replied, ahead of Opal.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Opal shot the spell at her friend, and calmly walked into the bathroom, shutting the door with a slam.

"Opal!" Lily gasped her normally quiet friend with astonishment, before removing the spell from Rachel, who was just as astonished as Lily and the two friends looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

Thirty minutes later all three girls were ready and wandered down to the already busy dining room, where they sat as far away from the blurry-eyed Marauders, who were less of morning people than Rachel. Glancing over to the Slytherin table, only a few ears and tails remained as the spell had mostly worn off. The first years seemed to have recovered and were full of enthusiasm about their first day.

"You need to make an effort to speak to him more." Opal advised. "Join him in his hobbies."

"What are Sirius' hobbies?" Lily asked.

"Practical jokes, frightening the first years, girls and Quiddich." Opal reeled off as though she had already thought of this. "Well you fit into one of those categories; Girls."

"Take up Quiddich!" Rachel jumped up excitedly. "Tryouts are this weekend, we need a new chaser! I'll teach you!"

"Slow down, Rachel. Um, I can't play Quiddich. I can barely get the broom off the ground, and then when it's off the ground I start to shriek hysterically. It's hardly going to be the best method of alluring Black." Lily pointed out.

"Listen to me Miss Potter," Rachel said stubbornly "It is Monday, you have five days in which to learn and you are one of the brightest students Hogwarts will ever have. It is well within your capabilities to learn how to fly a broomstick and throw some Quaffles around. Do you understand me?" Lily nodded meekly. "Right then we'll start at lunchtime. Meet me on the Quiddich pitch, right."

"Ok." Lily said, finishing the last mouthful of her breakfast. She was about to say something else, when McGonagall approached the girls and handed them their timetables.

"Thank you, Professor." Lily took the sheet and sighed; double potions first thing on a Monday morning.

"Miss Evans" the stern housemistress began with her broad Scottish accent "Would you and Mr Lupin be so kind as to escort the first year Gryffindors to their first lesson; they have care of magical creatures at 8:30 prompt. I have told them to wait for you in the common room."

"Of course, Professor." McGonagall smiled at the prefect and then walked over to the boys, doubtless to give the same message. Watching them, James didn't show a trace of embarrassment over the night before, and Lily could feel her temper rising. She glanced down at her magical Swatch.

"Twenty past eight, I suppose Remus and I should go get these first years then. I'll see you in potions." She got up to leave but then a thought occurred to her: "How do I act around Remus? I mean not only should I be mad at him about yesterday evening, but I asked him to Hogsmeade and now I'm going to start chatting up one of his closest friends."

"Okay, you need to casually drop in the fact that you only invited him as a friend, and then reiterate it several times. Guys just don't notice subtle hints." Opal said wisely.

"How did you get to be such an expert on guys?" Rachel asked, while Opal just blushed. Her friends had noticed how much confidence Opal seemed to have gained over the holidays and while the change definitely suited her, it still surprised her two friends.

Leaving Rachel to quiz Opal's newfound male-mind reading abilities, Lily stood up straight and tried to walk over to where the Marauders were sat as authoritatively and gracefully as possible, she'd show James Potter and the boys noticed her advancing towards them and looked up. Regrettably, a rather small first year chose that particular moment to excitedly run from the hall, and Lily, not seeing the child tripped over and fell headfirst. She braced herself for the sudden thud when she would land on the floor, but James had leapt to his feet and caught Lily in one swift movement. If James was expecting thanks, he was sorely mistaken.

"Stop touching me, Potter." She ordered, but James didn't let go and instead helped her to an upright position.

"Its okay, Evans, I'm not a stranger to having girls fall at my feet." He joked that grin on his face returning, while Sirius and Peter looked at each other, knowing that was the wrong thing to say.

"Of all the men's feet at which I could fall, yours are last on my list." Lily said, standing up and readjusting her robes.

"What even lower on your list than Sirius' very own feet after a Quiddich match during summer when there was a water shortage and so he hadn't showered for a week beforehand? Because they had a rather pungent aroma, I can assure you." Peter unhelpfully questioned her referring to the water drought the previous summer and Remus shuddered at the thought. This comment however was responded with a glare which told him to shut up so he returned to his bacon sandwich.

"Remus, shall we go get the first years?" Lily asked curtly before sweeping out of the room, leaving her fellow prefect to hurry after her.

James and Sirius watched Remus scurry out of the Great Hall. James feeling...

"Prongs, did you manage to feel her up as you caught her?" Sirius asked earnestly.

"What?" James was brought back from his thoughts. "No, you have a really sick mind; I hope you know that mate. What really worries me though, is that those are the kind of statements you feel fit to share with the rest of the world. I don't want to even imagine what else goes on in that head."

"Oh, my sweet, naive, innocent Jamsie" Sirius sighed "Though in all sincerity, I want to be a prefect next year!"

"All that responsibility and dealing with first years? You can't be serious."

"I'm always Sirius!" He replied. Peter groaned at the well used joke, and James hit his friend in the arm.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Aversion therapy. Every time you use that joke, I will inflict grievous bodily harm. You should soon grow out of it." James informed his friend who was rubbing his arm, looking to Peter for sympathy. It took a moment for Sirius to return to his original trail of thought. Well, thought is a strong word. Lust would be a better one.

"All that time alone with Evans." Sirius snickered to himself engrossed in his own thoughts, only resulting in James hitting him again.

* * *

Lunchtime quickly rolled around, and Lily found herself dragged onto the sports pitch, clad in a borrowed Quiddich kit that was slightly too tight for Lily's liking, but Rachel had insisted it would serve its purpose. It was slightly overcast as most days in Scotland are, and there was a definite chill to the air that Rachel found invigorating but made Lily wish for the comfort and warmth of the library.

"Am I correct in assuming that you know how to handle a broom?" Rachel demanded and Lily nodded in affirmation. "Let's see then." Lily held her hand over the school's ancient Asteroid 500 and commanded for it to rise. The broom did as required and steadily floated up to her hand and Lily prepared to mount it. Rachel frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to mount the broom...am I not doing it right?" Lily looked shocked at the tone in Rachel's voice.

"Let me ask you; if you spoke to a man that way, would a voice like that entice him?" Watch." Rachel demanded, holding her hand out over her broom. "Up" she commanded forcefully, and the broom rose instantaneously to the palm of her outstretched hand. "Now, when you mount the broom, treat it in an almost phallic manner." She smirked and climbed onto her broom, almost stroking the handle of the maple wood. Lily looked shocked at Rachel's attitude, but replaced her broom on the ground and followed Rachel's lead. The broom leapt up into Lily's hand in the exact same way as Rachel's had done.

"See." Rachel said in her most smug tone. "Right, follow my lead and by the end of this session we will have Black and Potter envious of your Quiddich skills!" She smirked, not noticing the outlines of two boys approaching the Quiddich pitch.

* * *

"Prongs mate, who are those two on brooms?" Sirius questioned his friend about the figures a distance away across the pitch. He and James had headed out to the Quiddich pitch to practise some new tricks on their brooms before the season begun.

"Looks like two girls to me" James replied and Sirius became far more interested and they stopped to watch. At that moment one of the girls commanded their broom to rise, and it did...though rather feebly. "God, I hope she's not thinking about trying out for her house's team." He laughed. Just then, the other girl also commanded her broom to rise.

"Man that was hot!" Sirius said as the girl gripped the handle and straddled the broom.

"I sincerely hope that isn't a second year you're perving on!" James joked.

"Nah, with a body like that, my money's on it being a 6th year at least." Just then the other girl who had the first attempt on the broom had another go at getting it to rise, and perfectly copied her friend's movements. "Man that was hot!"

"You're telling me!"

"Please let them be in Gryffindor!" Sirius prayed as the two figures took off into the air.

"Well, there is only one way to find out!" James smirked, already having mounted his broom and kicking off. "Race you!"

"No fair" Sirius wined, before following his best friend in hot pursuit.

The two boys started showing off on their brooms as the caught up with the two girls. James was flying with no hands while Sirius was flying upside down.

"Hey" James called out to the two girls who were tossing a Quaffle about. "Can we join you?" He asked using his most charming smile as the two girls turned their heads to see who was interrupting their session. His face fell when he saw who it was. Sirius who had been lagging behind his friend, only just caught up.

"Evans!" he said, so shocked that he forgot he was flying upside down and took his hands off the broom. Fortunately, his reflexes were quick enough for his legs to wrap around the broom and he swiftly hauled his body weight back up and flipped the broom the right way up.

"Smooth, Sirius." Rachel said sarcastically.

"I'm choosing to ignore that sarcastic tone and take that as a compliment, Darling." He said, slightly mocking her surname.

"Shame, you need that huge ego of yours deflating a big."

"You think my ego is big? You should see my-" but whatever it was that Sirius would like to have shown Rachel was to be never known, as James hurriedly cut out the end of the sentence.

"What are you two doing out here?" James asked.

"I'm certainly not telling you, Potter." Lily retorted.

"Potter, can you please poke off?" Rachel asked nicely.

"Why is our beautiful Lily on a broom?" Sirius asked, winking at the two girls who both felt butterflies in their stomach. Sirius had that effect on most girls, as did James.

"It's a secret." Rachel said, and Sirius floated his broom so that he was just in between the two girls and close enough to whisper.

"Sirius likes secrets." He conspiratorially told the girls. Rachel looked at Lily, indicating that this would be a good time to initiate their plan. Lily's eyes widened and she suddenly felt a bit nervous. Lily couldn't lie. She just didn't have that ability. But she glancing at Potter's smug face, her pride refused to let her back down.

"Well, you see the thing is, Sirius..." she began, with Rachel's face egging her on. "I've always had a bit of a thing for Quiddich players" Sirius puffed out his chest at this revelation as Lily continued "You know, it's such a powerful game, and I was planning on trying out for the team." Lily ended batting her eyelids for good measure.

James suddenly snorted with laughter; "You what?"

"I would like to try out for the team." Lily replied defiantly, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously at Potter. "I have as much of a right to tryout as anyone else."

James just laughed again.

"What's the matter, Potter? Do you doubt my abilities?" She demanded, edging closer to the offending male.

"Yes." James responded without hesitation. An awkward silence fell among the four teenagers.

"I can do anything you can do." Lily said stubbornly, hoping that her face didn't show her nerves. In actual truth, though Lily was a competent on a broom, she had never tried anything beyond the basic first year broom manoeuvres.

"Fine, you copy everything that I do." James' eyes gleamed, and he abruptly set off, leaving Lily dumbfounded.

"Move, Lily Evans, for God sakes. Just try your best!" Rachel barked, and Lily nervously set off, leaning almost flat against the broom in an attempt to catch up.

Right, James thought to himself, I'll start off gently. He proceeded to do a series of rolls on the broom, each consecutive roll slightly faster than the other, until he was spinning round very quickly.

Lily closed her eyes, inhaled deeply and swung her body to the side. A couple of seconds later, Lily reopened her eyes and her breathing pattern returned to normal. This is alright, she thought, and to her surprise she completed the exercise well.

James paused for a moment allowing her to finish and was surprised at her lack of fear. His eyes caught hers for a moment; her emerald orbs glinting insubordinately while the gleam in his dark brown eyes became even more dangerous. He leant forwards and suddenly his broom was heading vertically towards the ground and he dropped to about two metres above the well maintained grass pitch before pulling out and flying level to the ground. James felt smug, after all there was no-way Lily could perform a wrongsky-feint on her first attempt.

Lily gasped, and for a moment was genuinely concerned at James close proximity to the ground before he pulled out of the manoeuvre.

"Shit." She cursed out loud, but Lily wasn't top of her class for lack of determination. She positioned herself comfortably on her broom and gripped tightly before allowing herself to plummet towards the ground. Throughout the two hundred metre dive, there was an internal struggle inside Lily's head, between her rational side telling her to stop, but as it had always been with Lily, her determination to beat Potter at his own game was just too great. She left it until she was only a metre above the ground before pulling out.

It took a moment for Lily to catch her breath, and it must have been a mixture of adrenaline and the smug feeling of winning that caused her to then turn to James and ask: "Are we done now, Potter, because lunchtime is nearly over and I need to get to class in a minute." She smiled at the dumb-struck James before landing her broom. "Are you coming, Rachel?" she asked, before walking of the pitch, giggling with Rachel by her side.

Sirius came and landed by James, the two silently watching the two retreating figures.

"Wow." Sirius said. "Evans is even hotter that I thought!"

That shook James back to reality. "Is that all you can think about? That was a seriously amazing feat she just performed. It took me weeks of practise to master that, and she gets it on her first attempt."

"Yeah, but did you see her legs in those shorts!" Sirius said excitedly. James shook his head at his best friend in mock despair. "James, you would have to be gay to miss those legs, and did you catch a glimpse of Darling's chest. Man those two are hot...and at the moment they're sweaty...why did we let them walk of James? This is practically a fantasy of mine!" Sirius sounded like a petulant child.

"You're a sick man at times, Sirius, I hope you know that." James grinned.

"Why thank you. I try my best." The two boys also started to trudge reluctantly towards the main school building.

"James." Sirius began once again.

"Sirius." James replied.

"I was thinking..." Sirius said slowly.

"Not again. Sirius, you are my best mate and everything, but your thoughts are rather limited to the subject of girls, parties and sex."

"You know me so well!" Sirius said proudly. "The thought is; if Evans gets on the team, think about all that time we can spend with her and Darling– think about the after match parties...I know I'm thinking about them already!"

"Have I told you lately that you're a sick man?"

"You know what? I don't think you've mentioned it for about twenty seconds. Please, go ahead, remind me."

"You're a sick man."

"You're just jealous because you don't have the same imagination as me!"

"I'm thankful that I don't have the same imagination as you. I'm sure it would scar me. Now come on, we're going to be late for class."

* * *

As Opal had found herself friendless that particular lunchtime due to Lily and Rachel's Quiddich training, she had to wander into the dining room alone. Gazing round at the table full of people she felt a sudden panic. Who could she sit with? Being a shy, quiet, retiring individual, Opal was well aware that people only knew of her existence because of Rachel and Lily. There wasn't really anyone else in her house that she would feel confident going and sitting down by, and she was far too shy to introduce herself to anyone. Fortunately, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin were sitting at one end of the long house table and at that moment Peter looked up and gestured for her to come and sit with them. Blushing, Opal went and sat beside Peter muttering her thanks and helping herself to some food.

"So where are your friends?" Peter asked to make conversation.

"Um...playing Quiddich." Opal wasn't sure how much information she was allowed to divulge. "I think Rachel wanted to practise or something."

"Hey, that's where Prongs and Padfoot are!" Remus said. "I wish we were there to watch. I bet it'll be entertaining when they all meet up."

"Yeah, I bet Prongs comes back hexed to infinity by Evans. My bet is she'll hex the hair!" Peter joked, causing Opal to emit a quiet giggle. He smiled at that sound.

"Lily certainly has it in for James, doesn't she?" Peter stated, more than asked.

"Yeah, but you have to admit that it's really entertaining." Remus chuckled and Opal nodded in affirmation.

Peter rested his hand on the table, accidentally brushing Opals hand which caused her to quickly withdraw it as she blushed a deep crimson colour. That brief physical contact caused Peter's heart to skip a bit and he once again thought that Opal truly was the most beautiful girl he had ever met. Remus noticed the small interaction between the two people and smiled, hoping that one of them would soon build up the confidence to do something about it.

However, the touching sentimental moment between the two timid souls in front of him was abruptly interrupted by Rachel and Lily grinning manically and plonking themselves either side of Remus.

"Oh, lunch I'm starving." Rachel announced, oblivious to any of the tension surrounding Opal and Peter.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Hi, thanks to everyone who has reviewed - it is greatly appriciated!

Chapter Three

Saturday morning rolled around far too quickly for Lily's liking. Although she and Rachel had practised a couple more times and Rachel had nothing but praise for her friend, Lily could not get rid of the butterflies in her stomach. Thinking about it, they were less like butterflies and more like killer moths.

"Come on, Lily, hurry up." Rachel barked at her friend whilst brushing her teeth, causing her to spray toothpaste across Lily.

"That is such an attractive sight!" Lily said, wiping the toothpaste from her Quiddich kit. "Are you sure that I look alright?"

The previous night, Rachel had spent a lot of time with Lily trying to get her sports kit right so as to drive Sirius Black wild. The ensemble Lily was currently wearing consisted of a tight sleeveless white sports top with a muggle logo across it and a pair of navy blue skorts which was far too short for Lily's liking. However, as Rachel was wearing a very similar outfit, Lily felt a bit more comfortable about her appearance.

"You're looking hot!" Rachel assured her friend. "Right, lets go and eat."

"I can't. I'm too nervous." Lily protested.

"Nonsense! You have nothing to worry about." Rachel dismissed her friend's fears. "Opal! Wake up. Lily and I are going to eat, come see us later, yep?" This received a grunt in acknowledgement from the sleeping Opal, who then turned over and went back to sleep.

Down in the Great Hall, Rachel tucked into a large fry up, the sight of which made Lily feel ill, as she chose to nervously nibble on an apple instead. Her nerves were somehow intensified when Potter and Sirius walked into the hall and sat down beside them.

"And how are we this morning?" Sirius boomed, noticing Rachel's plate of food and trying to steel a piece of bacon from her plate. Rachel stabbed his hand with her fork.

"There is a large plate of bacon over there, get your own." She growled, while Sirius nursed his hand.

"But I want that piece of bacon!" Sirius wined like a petulant child, receiving a glare from Rachel, who promptly stuffed the whole piece of bacon in her mouth. "Fine." He muttered piling his own plate full of food.

"How are you this morning, Evans?" James asked, trying to ignore the horrible sight of Sirius stuffing his face with food.

"Fine thank you, Potter. Are you nervous?" She asked, causing James to laugh.

"About what exactly?"

"Well, you were a chaser last year, weren't you?" Lily asked and he nodded affirmatively. "That's the position I'm trying out for."

James suddenly paled. Lily had been very good that day her saw her practising, but was she good enough to take his position on the team? At that moment, Rachel finished her breakfast, and stood up announcing that she and Lily were going. Lily muttered good bye to the two boys before following her friend out to the Quiddich pitch.

* * *

"Those people I pick for my team must be completely dedicated." Stephanie McKinnon, the Gryffindor Quiddich team captain announced to the group of people standing before her. "There will be two practises a week, and I will require 110 of you. I can see several new faces here, along with some familiar faces from last year. Those who were on last years squad have no advantages over those of you trying out for the first time, as I will select people purely on the ability shown today. Now, everyone mount your brooms and follow me, copying exactly as I do."

Lily was surprised to find herself copying each of the Quiddich manoeuvres with ease, and the session went well. Stephanie was pushing them all to their limits and several of the younger students who had underestimated the challenge that Quiddich would face had dropped out and were now sat at the side of the pitch watching the ten or so remaining players. She had the candidates play some of the positions and made notes on each of the players. Finally, two and a half hours after starting, she called everyone to the ground.

"Right, well done guys, there were some excellent moments up there." Stephanie congratulated the team. "Go get a drink and come back here in ten minutes so that I can announce the new team." And with that everyone was dismissed so that she could go back to her notes.

Opal, who as promised had come out to watch the last half an hour of tryouts, came running over to her friends, and handed them a bottle of water each.

"I thought you'd be thirsty." She explained, as the two girls took the water eagerly and started drinking as quickly as they could. "You both looked great up there, I'll be surprised if you both aren't on the team. Lily, you really looked as if you were enjoying it!"

"I was." Lily admitted between gulps with a big grin on her face which was flushed red and the whispy bits of hair framing her face had gone curly as a result of the heat radiating from her being.

The three girls went and sat on the stairs of the stands in comfortable silence, Opal allowing the other two to regain their breath and she knew that they would be too nervous about the outcome to talk to her.

After what seemed like an eon, Stephanie finally came back and all the participants and their friends gathered round her impatiently. She smiled at their enthusiasm and everyone fell silent as she started to speak.

"Well, done everyone, you made my job very difficult as there are several people who could have played each position well but I have made my final choice. I will remain keeper, Rachel Darling is the seeker." There was a round of applause and Rachel looked very pleased with herself. "Centre chaser and vice captain is James Potter, with Daniel Ashton and Lily Evans as the outside chasers." Lily gained a smile that matched the one Rachel was sporting, and she caught James' eye, and he winked at her. "The blind side beater is Frank Longbottom and open side beater is Sirius Black. I would also like to ask Barnes Townesend and Lyn Smith to be our reserves. Thank you very much to all of you, and those who did not make the team this year, please practise and come back again next year. To those who did make the team, however, our first practise is this Wednesday. I'll see you there." Stephanie then walked off, followed by a couple of people who didn't make the team, obviously wanting to persuade her to change her mind.

The three girls stared at each other for a moment, before jumping up and down and squealing in excitement. Sirius found this very amusing and galloped over to join in, causing the girls to stop their antics.

"Well done, Evans." Sirius grinned at her. "And you, Darling."

"I know, I'm so pleased. I really enjoyed playing today." Lily smiled.

"Now that you are all on the team, I vote that we all go out tonight to celebrate." Sirius told the girls. This stopped Lily in her tracks.

"Tonight?" She questioned. "Out where?"

"Ask no questions, get told no lies." Sirius said in a sing-song voice, evading the question. Rachel shot Lily a look as if to say go along with it. "We'll meet you in the common room at eight." Sirius said before walking back over to James who had been joined by the other two Marauders and the group headed back towards the castle.

Lily was about to say something, when she was interrupted by Rachel.

"Please, for gods sake, Lily, can you forget you are a prefect for tonight and just go along with whatever they have planned?"

Lily sighed and thought about this for a moment, before slowly nodding her head.

"What do you think they have got planned then?" Opal asked as the girls headed up towards their room.

* * *

Rachel insisted that they spent the rest of the day preparing for their evening out with the Marauders, ignoring Lily's pleas to be excused so she could do her homework.

"I haven't got anything to wear!" Opal moaned, the contents of her wardrobe thrown across hers and Lily's bed.

"Wear your dark denim jeans and the silver wrap-around crop top with your silver heels." Lily ordered. Opal paused for a second.

"Really, you prefer that to the navy-blue dress and cream court-shoes?"

"Yes!" Lily said, fearing that if Opal changed her mind once more she would find herself in Azkaban for strangling her friend with the aforementioned item of clothing. Fortunately, Opal seemed persuaded and went into the bathroom to change just as Rachel tottered out in a tight red dress that fell just above her knees and matching red shoes. Rachel took one look at Lily and screamed, causing Opal to rush straight back out the door.

"Lily. Isn't. Ready. Only. One. Hour. Left." She said in a state of shock.

"So, what's the problem?" Lily made the mistake of asking, causing Rachel to rub her temples as though she was in serious pain.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, Lily Evans, and we are going to calmly get you ready." She said, before turning to Opal and barking for her to hurry up. Then she marched over to her own wardrobe and pulled out a short black halter-neck dress before handing it to Lily, who had opened her mouth to protest, but stopped when Rachel glared at her.

"Don't forget to wear matching underwear." Opal called out from the bathroom.

"Why does it matter?" Lily asked. "No-body will be seeing my underwear."

"Yes, but you'll know that you are wearing matching underwear and so you'll feel sexier." Rachel explained rummaging through Opal's vast shoe collection. "Even Opal knows that! Aha! Found them." She then threw a pair of black four inch strappy stilettos at Lily. "Get changed now!"

Lily sighed, and obediently did as she was told.

* * *

For the boys, getting ready for an evening out was a completely different affair. With an hour to go, only Remus had suggest getting ready, but was quickly reminded by his friends that only girls got ready an hour before and so Remus remained lounging about on his bed chatting with his friends.

"So, who have you got your eye on tonight, Pete?" Remus asked.

"Um, no-one in particular." He lied quickly, and Remus smiled knowingly.

"Not even a certain Opal Derwent?" Remus questioned, shocking Peter so much that he fell of his bed.

"What's this?" Sirius joined in, shutting his copy of PlayWizard and letting it fall onto the floor. "Peter likes Opal?" Remus nodded on Peter's behalf, as Peter, still shell-shocked couldn't say anything.

"Petey, is this true?" Sirius questioned his friend.

"Well, I kind of...I think she is a nice girl, and I wouldn't mind...yes." Peter trailed off. Sirius giggled manically with glee, and shouted to James who was in the shower.

"Prongs, our little Peteykins has fallen in love. He's growing up!"

"What?" James shouted back from in the shower, the water dulling the sound of his voice. Sirius leapt off his bed and opened the bathroom door, with a complete disregard for his friend's privacy.

"I said our little Peteykins has fallen in love." Sirius repeated.

"That's nice, mate, now sod off while I'm in the shower." James replied, as Sirius flounced off leaving the door open. "Remus." James wined from behind the shower curtain. "Can you shut the door for me, please?"

"But I'm comfy where I'm sat." Remus yawned lazily. "Make Peter."

"Pete!" James wined, and Peter got up and shut the door.

A couple of minutes later, James, clad in only a pair of boxers, rejoined the group.

"Peter, mate, that's great!" James reassured his friend. "Are you going to do something about her tonight?"

"I hadn't really thought about it."

"Think now!" Sirius urged.

"That's rich coming from you, Sirius." Remus interrupted. "You never think."

"Not true!" Sirius protested.

"Thoughts about girls, sex and Quiddich don't qualify."

"Oh. Fine, it's true then!"

"God, Sirius, you're so shallow!" James said throwing a pillow at his mate.

"I resent that!"

"You've just admitted it though!" Remus reminded him.

"I said I resented it. I didn't say that I denied it." Sirius retorted.

Remus shook his head in despair. "So, Peter, I think you should ask Opal out tonight."

"Really? Do you think she'll say yes?"

"Of course she will, mate." Sirius injected into the conversation. "You're a marauder, and no girl can resist a marauder!"

"Lily had been resisting James for years." Peter pointed out.

"Okay, apart from Evans." Sirius conceded.

"And didn't Rachel turn you down a couple of months ago." He continued.

"Well, yes." Sirius was stumped.

"Pete, you have to remember that in the same sentence that Sirius asked Rachel out his used the phrase 'I love your rack'." Remus pointed out, and Sirius scowled. "As long as you take no dating advice whatsoever from those two, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I'll have you know, Moony, that James and I here are known for our way with the ladies and that you are just jealous, because you haven't gotten any in a while!" Sirius replied, pulling his t-shirt off so that he could put on a clean button up while shirt.

"Padfoot, do you have to strip in front of us!" Peter asked, hiding his face behind his fingers.

"Well, if you were as hot as me, you'd feel the need to strip all the time too."

"Are you saying that you are the hottest bloke in the room, Padfoot?" James challenged.

"Yes I am."

"Well, if that is the case I see a contest coming on tonight."

"Oh, what kind?"

"He who makes out with the most women wins." James stated.

"Easy." Sirius said.

"Hang on," Remus said "This isn't a lads night out, we are escorting three girls out with us tonight."

"Oh yeah." James said.

"Fine, the above rule still stands but whoever gets with Rachel, Lily or Opal first wins regardless of the amount of other girls anyone else may have made out with." Sirius' eyes flashed dangerously.

"I'm in." James replied confidently.

"So am I" Remus agreed.

"And me!" said Peter, not wanting to be left out.

At eight o'clock the boys were all sat on the comfy sofas in the common room, waiting for the arrival of the girls, the overpowering smell of aftershave causing some of the first years to feel rather light headed. Peter was twiddling his thumbs nervously. He was slightly worried about the bet as Opal's name had been included. Peter was aware that his wasn't as good-looking, intelligent or charismatic as the three other guys in his group and was worried about what would happen if one of the made a play for Opal. In a brief moment of courage he decided to say something about it.

"Um, guys, you know our bet?" He attracted the attention of his friends. "Well, I really like Opal and so, can we...kind of...um..." he trailed off uncertainly.

"Leave her out of it?" James finished kindly as the other two guys nodded in agreement. "Course mate."

"What about Evans then?" Remus asked James.

"What about her?" He said shortly.

"Well, you've had a crush on her for years."

"I have not."

"So you wouldn't mind if Sirius or I got with her?" Remus asked, surprised by his friend's reaction.

"No, of course not. I'm over all that." James said forcefully, though a bit of him felt uneasy at the prospect of Sirius and Remus chatting up his Lily.

At that moment however, the girls had started to walk down the stairs, attracting a lot of attention from the common room, as a group of fourth year boys started wolf-whistling the girls, causing Lily and Opal to blush while Rachel smiled proudly. James' heart skipped a bit as Lily looked the most beautiful he had ever seen her. The short black dress and heels made her legs look as though they went on forever, and the cut of the dress showed off her enviable figure to its best effect. The other girls looked good too, but James couldn't take his eyes off Lily. Remus leapt to his feet and went to offer his arm to Rachel, looking at Peter to do the same to Opal. Peter stood up, and promptly tripped over his own feet causing him to stumble.

"Graceful, mate." Sirius grinned, walking over to Lily at the same time as James. Lily seemed surprised at the attention she was receiving from the two Marauders, but gladly took their arms.

"I can't walk in these shoes." She admitted to James and Sirius.

"Why did you wear them then?" James asked.

"Rachel made me."

"Ladies, shall we go?" Sirius asked, and the seven of the exited through the portrait hole.

"How are we going to avoid getting caught?" Rachel asked Remus.

"Magic." Sirius responded for him.

"Where are we going?" Lily asked no-one in particular.

"Hogsmeade." James admitted.

"How are we getting there?" Lily demanded, looking frantic at the prospect of getting caught.

"Calm it, Evans." James said. "We won't get caught."

"Oh yeah, how do you know?"

"Because we are the Marauders!" Sirius declared.

"Oh, that just fills me with reassurance!" Lily said dryly.

"Well, you see in our second year we found some secret passages." Remus explained as they stopped by a statue of a rather unfortunate looking old woman. James walked behind the figure and tapped the hags hunch with his wand.

"Now what?" Rachel demanded impatiently.

"Wait a second!" Sirius scowled. Sure enough, the hunch opened up allowing the seven people to climb inside. Opal looked nervous at the prospect of climbing into a dark passageway, but Peter gently took her hand and smiled at her. She found herself smiling back and allowed Peter to guide her into the passageway.

"So which one of you is the biggest lightweight?" Sirius asked the girls teasingly. Rachel sighed, as though this was an issue that bothered her. "I'm the only one that drinks properly. Lily only drinks the odd firewhiskey and coke and that is when I'm forcing it down her neck, and look at Opal, she's so tiny just the sniff of an alcoholic beverage and she'd be knocked out!" This just gave Sirius a huge grin, which Lily noticed.

"But I'm only on orange juice tonight, Sirius." Lily warned.

"Of course, why are you warning me?" Sirius asked mischievously. Lily ignored the question.

"So, which one of you is the biggest lightweight?" Rachel countered Sirius, who quickly took offence.

"We are the Marauders; it would take a stronger substance than mere alcohol to affect us!" Sirius announced firmly.

Remus, however, lent over and whispered in Rachel's ear, "With someone as defensive about the subject as that, who do you think?" Remus quickly noticed how close he was to Rachel and lent back, the tops of his ears turning pink.

Lily had disentangled herself from the admiring attentions of James and Sirius and strolled over to Opal and Peter.

"Peter, can I just talk to Opal a second. Girls stuff." She asked. Peter nodded and Lily linked her arm with Opal's and they trailed slightly behind the group.

"Opal, please don't let me drink tonight. We've got to go back to school tonight, and I don't want anyone to find me drunk and disorderly, particularly not the teachers. I'm a prefect, it wouldn't be right." Lily said. Only once before had Lily and her friends gone out drinking, and Lily still remembered how awful it had felt the day after.

While Lily had resolved not to drink tonight, she didn't trust herself round Rachel who would be drinking. It wasn't that Lily didn't drink, on the contrary at home she would often have a glass of wine with her dinner as her parents allowed her a Petunia to drink, in the hope of teaching their girls the values of moderation. As with all teenagers, if you forbid them to do anything then you can be sure that they will rebel against it. However, by trusting Lily drink in moderation at home her parents hoped that when Lily was introduced to alcohol in the big wide world, she would drink sensibly. And the plan worked. Last time Lily had drank in excess she felt so guilty that she never wanted to do it again.

Opal nodded and the two girls rejoined the group.

"Are we there yet?" Rachel asked semi-jokingly. "My feet really hurt. If I'd known we were going to be walking for miles I would have worn more appropriate footwear. As it happens, I wasn't warned and these stilettos are painful!"

To Rachel's astonishment she was suddenly whisked off her feet by Remus, who carried her in his arms with a surprising ease. He took about ten steps before stopping and putting her down again.

"What? I'm not walking now that we all know how strong you are!" Rachel joked.

"We're here." Remus grinned, nodding to a ladder. Rachel felt slightly foolish and was thankful for the dark as she turned a fetching shade of pink.

Sirius was first up the ladder, which led them to an alleyway just off the main Hogsmeade high street, and was followed by the others.

"So where are we going, Potter?" Lily asked.

"It's James, and we've been invited to a party round a friend's house."

Lily was taken aback. "Oh, whose house? Would we know him?"

"Christian White, he was at Hogwarts two years ago."

"Oh yes, he was a prefect, wasn't he?"

James nodded affirmatively. "Anyway, he's just brought his first house and, I quote 'wants to introduce the house to his friends'. It should be quite a good party as his house is surrounded by farmland so there is loads of space."

It was only a five minute walk to Chris' house, and the conversation between everyone started to flow easier. One arrival there were already a fair few people and the Marauders looked around, trying to find the host just to say 'hi'. Remus was the first to find him, handing out drinks to two pretty brunettes and they all went over to talk to him.

"Hi Chris, mate, how's it all going?" Sirius asked, as Chris handed him a drink.

"Great, thanks Sirius. How are all you guys doing? How's Hogwarts?"

"Fine, doubt it's changed much since you left, except all the staff are a bit older." James said, absentmindedly glancing at Lily.

"Right." Chris seemed to have only just realised the presence of the three girls, Lily in particular. "And how is life treating you, Miss Evans?"

"Fine thanks 'Tian, how's the job going? You're working in a Wizarding Law Firm, right?" She replied, shocking the guys at her familiarity with the tall blonde.

"Great, absolutely love it – lawyers are allowed to be cocky all day long and get paid for it!" He joked, and Lily laughed. "What are you drinking then?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm not really, thanks." Lily replied and Chris gasped in mock astonishment.

"Lils, it's my party and I want everyone to have a drink, and that includes you." He the proceeded to pour some clear substance into a glass half-filling it and then topped it off with coke. If anyone else had said this to Lily then they would have without a doubt ended up wearing the drink, but throughout her time at Hogwarts, Lily had always harboured a small crush on the older boy. They were friends of sorts, despite the three year age gap but he and Lily had once got talking in the library as he had been worrying about what he wanted to do after he left Hogwarts and Lily just listened. After that they weren't best buddies and could go for weeks without needing to see each other, but when they did bump into one another they could talk for hours. It was a strange relationship, but apparently not one that the Marauders knew about. Lily accepted the drink (ignoring glares from Opal) and Chris turned his attentions to pouring out drinks for everyone else, promising to dance with her later. Lily took a sip of the drink, and went to sit with Sirius who was sat chair outside. There was a huge marquee outside under which people were dancing to modern music, both muggle and wizarding.

"Do you know any of the people here?" She asked, waving at Opal who was dancing with Peter.

"Nope, but I can see some girls who I would like to make myself very well acquainted with!" Sirius replied, not taking his eyes off the two brunettes Chris had been previously.

"Oh, I'm sorry am I not good enough for you?" Lily joked, rolling her eyes.

"Fine then, Miss Lily Evans, may I have this dance?" Sirius asked, standing up and offering his hand.

"No, I'm not having a pity dance!" Lily pretended to be outraged, and crossed her arms. Sirius laughed, it wasn't often that Lily was quite this relaxed.

"Sorry, Lily, may I have the pleasure of having a dance with the most beautiful girl here?" He asked again in an overly elaborate tone.

Lily inhaled deeply as she pretended to contemplate the matter. "You may have one dance." She finally agreed. Standing up she quickly drained her glass and allowed herself to be led to dance floor by Sirius, with whom she danced during several songs.

"This music is awful." Sirius complained as a particularly annoying song that was sung by a particularly annoying band began to play. "Let's go change it."

They made their way over to Chris' WMED (Wizarding Musical Entertainment Device, similar to a muggle MP4 player) and started to scroll through the songs, with playful banter about the music contained on the WMED.

"Play that and I'll never talk to you again!" Lily shouted over the music at a song Sirius was lingering on.

"Well, play that and I'm going in search of the two brunettes!" Sirius said when Lily hovered over a slushy ballad. Sirius suddenly realised how close they were and lent down to whisper in Lily's ear. "Shall we go on a tour of the house?" he suggested. Lily felt butterflies in her stomach as she looked up into his eyes and nodded. "Let's go get another drink first though." Sirius took her hand and led them through the dance floor. Sirius grabbed another drink for himself and Lily and then they left the marquee to wander around the grounds surrounding the house.

Lily liked the way her hand felt in Sirius' and they were just chatting about the party when something scurried past them, startling Lily who screamed and stopped dead in her tracks.

"What's that?" Lily demanded, while Sirius laughed at her.

"It's just Annabelle the Pygmy Goat!" He said as though it was obvious. Lily looked at him and then laughed.

"Why does 'Tian have a Pygmy Goat?"

"Well, does he strike you as a cat person?" Sirius countered.

"Not really," Lily admitted "But what's wrong with an owl."

"It's one of the magical goats that we set loose in the castle a couple of years ago. Chris was rather taken by it, he reckoned it was really sweet and so he's kept it ever since." Sirius confided taking a gulp of firewhiskey, and he and Lily laughed.

Lily's head was starting to feel quite hazy, but determined not to let it show, she continued to walk around the property.

This didn't take long; after all it was only a first house and when they got back to the Marquee, Lily was quickly asked to dance by someone else and then spent an enjoyable half an hour making pleasant small talk with a few guys, all of whom insisted on getting her drinks. She knew she should stop, but she was so flattered by all the attention being bestowed on her that Lily couldn't quite refuse.

James, who had been dancing with an eye-catching blonde, noticed that Lily wasn't looking quite right. He made his excuses to the girl he was dancing with and went over to Lily, frightened off any possible admirers and took Lily back outside.

"Sit here." He ordered, pointing to a chair in a quieter part of the garden, and he apparated inside and back again, clutching a glass of water. He handed to Lily, who looked like she wanted to refuse, but knew it was for the best.

"How much have you had to drink?" James asked, concerned that Lily was so passive.

"Too much, I think, but I'm just having fun." She replied in one breath, before finishing the drink. "Can I go now, I want to find Sirius." James was debating whether or not to let her go back inside, but before he could reply, Lily had jumped up and hurried inside. James quickly followed her, and saw her go up to Sirius and place her arms round his neck.

James felt a sudden surge of jealousy, but those feelings were overcome by a need to protect Lily from her state of drunkenness. He needed to find Lily's friends, she'd listen to them, and so he went on the search for Opal and Rachel, not glancing back at Lily and Sirius.

Sirius was in a similar state to Lily and flattered by the attention she was giving him, leant down and kissed her firmly, grateful when she responded by running her hand through his hair. Neither of them were quite sure how they managed it, but they found themselves sneaking into the house, which was now nearly empty for everyone was outside. Both giggling like small children, the pair went upstairs and into an empty room where they started kissing furiously.

The next day neither of them were sure quite how long they'd been up there, but they were rudely interrupted by Rachel and Opal, followed by Remus, Peter and James.

"Right, come on Lily, I think it's time to go!" Rachel said.

"Why?" Lily wined like a small child. "I'm just having fun!"

"Yes, you've had some fun, you've drank far too much and now it's time to go." Rachel's voice took on the tone one uses with a small child.

"I have not drank too much." Lily scowled. "I'm only slightly inebri...inebri..."

"Inebriated?" Opal finished.

"Yeah, inebriated. That's a funny word to say." Lily giggled and her friends started to guide her down the stairs.

"I met Annabelle the Pygmy Goat!" Lily was telling her friends proudly, and the proceeded to discuss the aforementioned farm yard animal all the way back to Hogwarts.

"Remind me to hit her in the morning. She deserves it!" the ever-patient Opal complained to Rachel.

* * *


End file.
